Can birds get high?
They may have 'bird brains', but some birds do seem to enjoy getting high!
Over the years, as marijuana legalisation has swept over parts of the world, getting high has become a more common activity. We’ve got songs about weed, competitive cooking shows about cannabis infused meals, and recently, even athletes doing weed.
Have you ever wondered: can birds get high?
Technically, birds can get high
It turns out the answer to my question is yes! Birds, and most other vertebrates (animals with spines: such as cats, horses, and even fish and frogs!) possess something called ‘cannabinoid receptors’. These receptors are the things in our brains that allow us to ‘get’ high.
If that’s confusing, perhaps you can imagine these cannabinoid receptors as our eyes, and weed as the different colours of the rainbow. Although we humans can see many colours ranging from violet to red on the rainbow scale, other animals cannot.
For example, dogs can only discern blue and yellow - this limited color perception is called dichromatic vision.
In a nutshell:
Dogs’ eyes are built differently from human eyes, which means dogs and humans perceive colours differently
Similarly, some animals’ brains are built differently from human brains, which means different species perceive ‘getting high’ differently
Birds have the same cannabinoid receptors in their brains, so perhaps they can get high the same way humans do
Do birds like getting high?
Generally speaking, being high refers to the feeling of euphoria or intense pleasure that can be caused by certain drugs.
While we do know that birds can feel the effects of drugs, we don’t know if birds actually experience this same feeling of intense pleasure.
However, anecdotal evidence seems to suggest a bird getting high results in a devastating impact on their nervous and respiratory system.
There are stories on Quora that details how some birds can get neurotic when high, struggle to breathe, and pluck out their feathers; exposing their breastbone. These are anecdotal tales, and not backed up by scientific research.
But it’s not all bad!
Birds apparently like rubbing ants on themselves in order to get high
A scientific paper found:
"Birds use the ants to anoint themselves with the formic acid excretions of the ant to give tone to the muscles and also for the general agreeable effect."
An agreeable effect, huh?
This behavior is dubbed "anting" and involves a bird grabbing a beak-full of ants and rubbing them under their wings. As a means of defense, ants omit formic acid, which then gets absorbed by the bird's body.
People have reported seeing birds dancing around with their wings stretched out and their beak wide open, right after having covered themselves with this formic-acid-ant-spray.
Why do birds ‘ant’?
The most common theory is that these chemicals in the ants help rid the birds’ feathers of parasites. Other studies have shown that anting helps birds protect themselves against infections caused by fungus and bacteria.
Other scientists believe that the ants have a soothing or pleasurable effect on the skin. The act of ‘anting’ to get high has been recorded amongst several species of birds—such as the blue jay, the hoopoe, the common starling, the mockingbird, the kestrel, the raven, the crow, and the chaffinch.
Ever wondered what other animals can get high?
Elephants and the marula fruit? Not really
You may have heard of the African myth about a fermented marula fruit capable of intoxicating large mammals such as elephants. (There’s even a skincare brand called Drunk Elephant, whose star product is Marula Oil!) However, this myth is apparently just a bush legend. While elephants have been recorded to display signs of being rather tipsy, they are simply so big that they cannot consume enough fermented fruit to actually get drunk, or high.
Wallabies and opium? Yes, they can!
Wallabies in Tasmania have been seen falling around and hopping in circles, apparently high after feeding in local poppy fields. Stoned wallabies “can become disoriented and lose their ability to find water”! Tasmania is the world’s largest producer of legally grown opium for the pharmaceutical industry, and when food is scarce, the wallabies survive by eating the plant’s intoxicating heads.
Caterpillars and coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine? Not really…
The caterpillar larvae of the Coca Tussock Moth, found in Peru and Colombia, feeds exclusively on coca plants, eating as many as 50 leaves each day. Most insects avoid the bush, which is the raw ingredient of cocaine, because it can make them severely ill or kill them. But US studies comparing the dopamine receptors of these caterpillars have shown the latter are completely resistant to the drug!
That’s all for today. I hope my blog is schooling you on fun facts! It’s not always birds - we’ve learnt about wallabies and caterpillars today, too. If you liked today’s article, you can help me out by ‘liking’ and sharing my post on your socials.